


MCU: The Diabetic Rogers Child

by WingletBlackbird



Category: Captain America: The First Avenger - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Diabetes, Disability, Gen, Meta Essay, non-fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:13:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25999558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingletBlackbird/pseuds/WingletBlackbird
Summary: When you realise that on Steve's enlistment form it says that he has a parent or a sibling who is diabetic.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	MCU: The Diabetic Rogers Child

I must admit my mind has been reeling since I re-watched Captain America: The First Avenger and noticed amongst the list of ailments “Parent/sibling with diabetes.” Now unless Sarah Rogers got diabetes after Steve was four years old, diabetes was a death sentence. Frankly, even if she got it after 1922, the discovery of insulin, the treatments were so new that she wouldn’t have been in good health. This means that it is far more likely Steve had an older sibling who died of diabetes. I cannot stop thinking about this.

Type I diabetes typically manifests in childhood. The first peak is between the ages of 4 and 7, and the next between 10 and 14. Now if Steve was born in 1918, and his sibling were 2-3 years older than he, they would be 6-7 years old when 1922 comes around. This means that either Steve’s brother or sister died right around when a treatment for the condition would be discovered, or they were older when they became diabetic and were able to get some treatment before they died from their condition. Given that Steve having a sibling isn’t mentioned beyond that throwaway line on his enlistment application, I am inclined to think Steve lost his sibling when he was around three or four years old. 

**This drives me crazy, because all I can think about is that Mrs. Rogers lost her husband and then watched her older child die from a condition for which a treatment was discovered within months, if not weeks, after said child died.**

That is seriously devastating. It must have really haunted her. 

And how must it affect Steve? He has not only seen death up close and personal, he probably compares himself negatively to his sibling. After all, in that period of history, (heck even from some people nowadays), he would have been told he was a burden on society and better off dead. He must have often wondered if life wouldn’t have been better or easier for his mother if only he had been the one to die instead.

(Seriously, my heart is breaking.)


End file.
